Audio clips and ‘stolen’ recordings of Thuli Madonsela’s State of Capture interviews are washing up at media houses as party factions fire salvoes in PR war.

Audio clips leaked to Noseweek of former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela interviewing former ANC MP and caucus chair Vytjie Mentor, months before the release of Madonsela’s State of Capture report, suggest there may have been a spy in the Protector’s office.

Noseweek was sent the clips in late November from an ANC member with close ties to President Jacob Zuma. Noseweek has verified the recordings.

SA must tread softly to avoid repeating the mistakes of the Mbeki/Zuma presidential succession.

The biggest mistake South Africa can make now is to adopt an ABZ – “Anyone But Z uma” – attitude to the ANC succession debate. If we do that, we will make the same mistake the ANC made when they got rid of former president Thabo Mbeki, says Ralph Mathekga, political analyst and author of the recently published book When Zuma Goes.

“With Mbeki, there was the feeling we should have ABM – “Anything But Mbeki”. But that kind of thinking does not provide the opportunity to actually evaluate the next leader,” Mathekga said in an interview with Noseweek.

“We can’t just focus on getting out of the crisis of the current leader, without asking searching questions about the next one.

An explosive report fingering former Tshwane mayor Sputla Ramokgopa’s Chief of Staff for fraud and corruption was shelved a year ago by the city’s previous municipal manager, Jason Ngobeni. Ngobeni resigned when the DA took over the administration of the capital after the August local government elections.

The forensic report is one of several that have been retrieved from oblivion by the DA administration. Compiled by Fundudzi Forensic Services, the 247-page document recommended that criminal charges be laid against Ernest Shozi and other high-ranking former officials, as well as the companies they appointed to refurbish the mayor’s official residence and the Pretoria City Hall. The then ANC-controlled council ignored the recommendation.

President Nelson Mandela’s name is being invoked to lure investors into producing a sugar sweet known as the Madiba Lolly. This revelation comes as Pravin Gordhan prepares to launch his controversial sugar tax on soft drinks in the April budget, aimed at reducing the nation’s sugar intake to combat the soaring incidence of diabetes and obesity among the young.

Pieter van der Watt’s ARDT200 Trading CC (trading as Kandyland) and his Candy Factory Franchise shamelessly exploit the name of the world’s best-loved icon. “I’m sharing my formula of success with a few selected individuals and you can help meet the enormous demand for my Rainbow Lolly, known to all children as the Madiba Lolly!” goes the franchise maverick’s spiel on his website.

For just R490,000, a Kandyland satellite factory could knock out 41,600 Madiba Lollies a day and yield a monthly income of R252,720. “We require a factory in each region to supply the demand and it is my great pleasure to inform you that we are ready to up and roll…”

There are curious aspects to all the political assassinations recounted in the first part of this story in nose206, but none have as many peculiar features as the murder of Moss Phakoe, who was shot and killed in the driveway of his home in Rustenburg Noord in March 2009.

The general election campaign of that year was in progress and Phakoe had spent much of the day putting up ANC posters. The afternoon was hot, as Rustenburg afternoons often are, and he would have been tired and sweaty. It seems likely that he did not notice the killers making their way down his driveway or, if he did, thought nothing of it. What is certain is that he had not moved from his seat behind the steering wheel by the time the first shot was fired. When his family found him, Moss’s body was leaning, lifeless, against the steering wheel. He had wounds in his head and chest.

“It all started with service-delivery protests,” recalls his lifelong friend and fellow unionist Solly Phetoe.

An elaborate property rates scam operating out of the City of Johannesburg’s rates department has allowed the rich and connected not only to avoid having to pay municipal rates on their high-value properties, but even to milk the system for cash refunds to which they are not entitled. These frauds effectively leave the owners of lower-value properties to carry the city’s tax burden.

The discovery could finally result in a major clean-up in the city’s administration.

Besides allegedly rigging property valuations and rates assessments, the frauds are alleged to have extended to manipulating bills, illegally transferring properties and an “insider system” whereby ratepayers were allegedly required to pay staff – from low-level messengers to managers – “costs” to accelerate a “billing correction” that would make a rates debt “go away” or, better still, generate a generous refund to the ratepayer.

With the increasing occurrence of stories about men of God taking selfies in heaven, selling AIDS-curing holy water, and ridding people’s faces of cockroaches (with Doom!), it begs the question as to why people still subscribe to religion in South Africa. I understand that there is much more to Christianity and religion than these shiny-suit clad charismatic preachers, but I still wonder why so many people flock to them and still take religion seriously in this day and age.

As an atheist, I am inclined to dismiss all of religion as utter rubbish, and instead propose that science is all we need to be happy and feel fulfilled. I realise that science makes me happy because I am a nerd, so say the kids today on the web, through their mobile computer machines.

South Africa’s priciest real estate, along Cape Town’s Atlantic seaboard, is a magnet for celebrities and foreign holidaymakers – and all manner of crooks, creeps and miscreants
The flash suburbs of Cape Town’s ...

Audio clips and ‘stolen’ recordings of Thuli Madonsela’s State of Capture interviews are washing up at media houses as party factions fire salvoes in PR war.
Audio clips leaked to Noseweek of former ...

Confectionery franchise leaves bad taste.
President Nelson Mandela’s name is being invoked to lure investors into producing a sugar sweet known as the Madiba Lolly. This revelation comes as Pravin Gordhan prepares to ...

Political assassinations (Part 2)
There are curious aspects to all the political assassinations recounted in the first part of this story in nose206, but none have as many peculiar features as the murder of Moss ...

At last – major clean-up looms in Joburg administration.
An elaborate property rates scam operating out of the City of Johannesburg’s rates department has allowed the rich and connected not only to avoid ...

Science and religion. A pragmatic approach.
With the increasing occurrence of stories about men of God taking selfies in heaven, selling AIDS-curing holy water, and ridding people’s faces of cockroaches (with Doom!), it begs ...